Democrats recruit pro sports leagues for climate push

Democrats in Congress are recruiting a varsity squad of sports officials to help make the case for action on climate change.

Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are slated to meet Thursday with officials from most of the country’s major sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the National Football League.

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They will discuss “the effects of climate change on sporting activities and the work these organizations are doing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a statement.

Waxman and Whitehouse co-chair the Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change, which is a group of lawmakers who advocate for tackling global warming.

Thursday’s closed-door meeting, which will be followed by a press conference, stemmed from a series of 300 letters the task force sent to businesses and other groups in January asking for input on what the federal government should do to address the growing threat of climate change.

The MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL all responded to the letters, according to the lawmakers’ offices, which said they plan to “recognize these organizations for taking the threat of climate change seriously and doing their part to reduce GHG emissions.”

Officials slated to attend the meeting include: Craig Harnett, senior executive vice president and CFO at the NHL; Adolpho Birch, senior vice president of labor policy and government affairs of the NFL; John McHale, chief information officer and executive vice president of administration of the MLB; Kathy Behrens, executive vice president of social responsibility and player programs of the NBA; and Desiree Filippone, managing director for government relations of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

One notable sports league missing from the list: NASCAR. And this might help explain why: One of NASCAR’s most popular drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., appeared in a television advertisement funded by a coal industry group last year.

It’s not the first time the sports community has popped up in the center of a Washington policy debate. Major sports leagues drew the ire of Republicans in Congress earlier this year after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was in talks with some league officials about potential partnerships to encourage Obamacare enrollment.

“Given the divisiveness and persistent unpopularity of the health care [law], it is difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Whip John Cornyn wrote in June letters to the commissioners of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA and the chairman and chief executive officer of NASCAR.

The NFL quickly told reporters it had no plans to work with HHS on the law.

But the football world is no stranger to the Environmental Protection Agency. Jerome Bettis, the former NFL player, filmed a public service announcement for the EPA in 2011 about the agency’s mercury and air toxics regulation for power plants.